eCommerce MasterPlan exists to help eCommerce businesses get more customers – by helping them work out where to focus to grow their business as efficiently and effectively as possible.
We’ve found that the two most common questions someone running an eCommerce business asks are:
- Is what I’m doing the right thing? The best thing I could be doing?
- What do I do next?
So, we aim to give you the tools you need to answer those questions.
Our Story
eCommerce MasterPlan was created by Chloë Thomas in May 2012 to achieve 2 aims:
- Provide an escape route from the marketing agency she founded and was managing
- Enable her to do what she’d always been trying to do – help eCommerce business to avoid waste. The waste of missed opportunities, and spending budget on the wrong things.
And in December 2022 we’ve added a third:
3. Help and push eCommerce brands along the path to Net Zero – both to become better businesses AND to re-educate consumers to make better purchasing decisions.
Who’s Chloe?
Chloe Thomas has been in eCommerce and marketing for nearly 20 years.
After escaping life as a financial marketer (too many colleagues, too slow moving, too little impact) she fell into omnichannel retail running catalogue mailings, and getting excited about eCommerce.
That led to her “kid in the candy shop” role – bringing eCommerce to 6+ successful Mail Order businesses.
That role became a marketing agency that Chloe ran for 10 years, and 5 years in realised she was the last person in the world who should be running a marketing agency – she just couldn’t make it fit with her introvert-ness. Too often it meant she was in a terrible mood at work, spending all her free time sitting on the sofa desperately trying to recharge, or failing to chase up the new business the business really needed.
So how to combine her love for the nuts and bolts of marketing, the excitement of new strategies with earning a living?
It took 5 years to exit the agency (leaving it in awesome hands – who have already made it far more successful!), and then another 3 to really work out the right path forward.
Now it’s onwards and upwards for everything eCommerce Masterplan.
Our Journey
It all started with Chloe’s first book hitting the shelves in September 2012.
Since then there we’ve grown to include:
- 5 books – mostly bestsellers
- 2 podcasts – award-winning, high ranking, and frequently appearing in ‘must-listen’ lists
- At least one Virtual Summit a year
- Numerous speaking gigs around the world
- A specialism in chairing panel debates (who wouldn’t have guessed that back in 2012!!)
And now (in 2022) we focus on creating content to inspire and guide eCommerce business owners and marketers to make better marketing and carbon decisions in their businesses.
(in practical terms – that thinking, speaking, and writing!)
How well is the business meeting Chloë’s aims?
Aim 1:
She successfully exited the agency in 2016 and since then it’s been all eCommerce MasterPlan.
And leaving the agency has 100% been a great move.
Aim 2:
Every month 10,000+ people consume our content – we hope because it’s helping them avoid waste in their lives and business, and setting them up for success. Rather than just a way to kill time!
Aim 3:
it’s early days – but feedback is good! (find out more here)
Who is eCommerce MasterPlan?
There is only one full time person at eCommerce MasterPlan – that’s our founder Chloë Thomas. Her work is supported by a phlanx of specialists!
Fenella is always around – looking after everything financial. The team at Music Radio Creative look after our podcast production, April and Christine do a lot of the work, and there’s a wide range of others as the needs of the business dictate (including social media, ebook designers and much much more).
How can eCommerce MasterPlan help you?
There are lots of ways you can get our help to grow your business:
Join our Email List
Subscribe to our newsletter
Signing up will add you to the eCommerce MasterPlan email marketing list, so you’ll get regular updates packed with ways to improve your eCommerce business. You can unsubscribe at any time, and see our Privacy Policy here.
We are always shouting about new great resources that will help you grow your business in our weekly newsletter.
So get signed up to make sure you know all about what we’re sharing and what we’re creating.
The eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast
Chloë launched the eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast in 2015 to bring you the fasicating conversations she gets to have with other people running eCommerce businesses.
It’s a weekly show with occasional bonus episodes, and it’s evolved to include the occasional monologue, or expert session, and the very popular conference takeaways.
You can find out all about the podcast and start listening right here.
The Keep Optimising Podcast
Chloë launched Keep Optimising in 2020.
Each month we focus on a different marketing method, talking to a different expert about a different slant on it each week.
It’s a weekly show, released every Wednesday.
Find out all about how it can help you improve your marketing here.
Chloë’s Books
Writing is one of Chloë’s favourite things to do – looking at the world of eCommerce and marketing and developing models to help others to make sense of it all, and build their businesses faster.
So far we’ve published 5 books, and all are available as Paperback, ebook, and audiobook.
Find more information about them here
Speaking
Speaking at and chairing events is one of Chloë’s favourite things to do!
Keep an eye on our newsletter and social media to see where she’s going to be next.
If you’re interested in hiring Chloë to speak at your event follow this link
Coaching, Training and Projects
Chloë’s in the process of removing herself from working directly with individual retailers.
You find out how we can help, and how our partners can help here.
About Chloë Thomas
Chloë is the brains behind eCommerce MasterPlan.
She’s the author of the books and blog content, the host of the podcast, and develops all our content and strategies.
Chloë has been working in direct marketing since 2001, originally getting a job in retail banking marketing at Barclays after her history degree at Oxford. Next she worked at UK mail order and high street business Past Times as their Direct Communications Manager – looking after the instore loyalty program, the catalogue mailings, and email marketing.
After Past Times went into administration in Christmas 2005 (not her fault she assures us!), she was very lucky to get a job as Head of eCommerce at mail order consultancy Ardington. There she brought several estabilished mail order businesses into the internet age – launching multiple websites, endless first ever email campaigns, as well as Google Adwords and affiliate marketing. That role was highly successful and after less than a year turned into a marketing agency all of its own.
The agency cycled through many different approaches and models over the years, enabling Chloë to cut her teeth in B2B marketing and sales as well as learn a great deal more about retail and eCommerce whilst working with everyone from high street retailers to pure play online startups.
In 2012 Chloë realised her future was in helping eCommerce businesses work out what marketing they should be doing – and that trying to do this whilst also flogging Google Adwords services wasn’t the best way forwards! And so eCommerce MasterPlan was born allowing her to focus on bringing better eCommerce business strategies and marketing to the world.
Having launched the business in Oxford, Chloë moved back to her home town in Cornwall in 2013 and can now frequently be found on First Great Western trains heading in and out of London!
Want to find out more about Chloë and what’s she’s been up to – you’ll find that in her recent interviews.
Accolades:
- Power Retail (Australia’s number one eCommerce publisher) named Chloë one of the world’s top 10 eCommerce commentators.
- The eCommerce MasterPlan Podcast is the number one eCommerce podcast in the UK.
- Customer Persuasion is an Amazon.com bestseller
- Chloë is an “eCommerce Rockstar” – Skip Fedura, dotmailer
- Chloë is an “eCommerce visionary” – Kate Russell, BBC